Pullups

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Training and Health
21

When i was age 20 i got up to 40 pullups either way, palms facing and palms away. with my legs in a straight “L” postion toes about eye level. And 10 sets of wide grip pullups with 50# weight. 5 sets to back of neck and the 5 sets to the front of the neck. These were at a moderate pace, no kipping and full range. Actually it was my grip that was my limit not the pullup.

I got up to 3 one arm pullups with either arm from a dead hang, full range. 5’ 91/2" 165#

At age 46 now, I can still do 25 pullups and about 5-7 with 40# weight at a weight of 195# I am thinking about dropping 20# though so i can get the reps up higher a bit more easily.

22

Hi racerx,

Yes!! you need to take a day or so off inbetween your pullup days!

When i was in high school i did so many pullups on day i couldn’t lift my arms for about three days and i couldn’t straighten them out without pain too. I learned not to over it do cuz it actually made me sick!

Try taking it a bit slower.

23

Wall, you’re right, my progress is disturbingly slow but I’ve never been any good at pullups. The most pullups I’ve ever done in one set is 13 and I did that in 10th grade 21 years ago! :eek: I’ll give your program a try for the next 4 weeks and see where I’m at. Thanks for the suggestion.

24

I did the same thing you did and went from doing 2 pullups to 25 in a little over 2 months. I ruined the frame of my door though

25

The bar I have is from champs.It moves easy from door to door.The weight is distibuted across the top of the door frame.It has a couple a ways to do the pull ups,cost about 25$.

Hey scott,Iam going slow today.About 10 passes today plus missed a few here and there.

26

Hi racerX,

The thing is to give yourself some rest days. If you do pullups or any exercise everyday all you are doing is tearing down the muscle tissue. The healing process is where the improved strength and/or endurance occurs. The exercise strains the muscle, the rest period allows it to heal. While your muscle heals it over compensates and this is how the improvement occurs. You really need one to two days rest inbetween workout days. The rough guide is if you are too stiff or sore you need another day of rest. If you feel you must do something after waiting a day or so, but you are still stiff or sore, then do half the reps for the day. If you are doing 6 sets of 6 reps, do 3-6 sets of 3 reps. This will stimulate the muscles without over stressing them too soon.

If you have a swimming pool handy some light swimming or paddling around will assist in the recovery time as well.

When I did my intense pullup routine in my twenties I started out doing pullups Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, but i discoverd that I actually improved quicker on the weeks I didn’t train on Sunday.

Give it a thought and good luck!

27

Sounds like good advice.

:slight_smile:

28

Hi Chief, it’s been almost a month since your last post on this, what’s your max now?

29

Thanks for checking in on me. I did 10 the other day.

Once again my workout has changed. I’ve been doing the Crossfit workout. Not sure if you’re familiar with it but you do a lot of pullups. When you can’t do pullups anymore, you do jumping negatives. So I’ve been doing this and my numbers have increased.

30

How many can you do now?

31

right now I’ve got tendonitis in my right shoulder and a tweaked back so I just went out to the garage and was able to do three. Man I suck at pullups.

Thanks for calling me out on this one. I need more practice.

32

On the whole taking the rest thing I found that when im training like 25 hours a week inc gym etc that I wouldn see hude gains but what i did is stop training for like two weeks at such a intense rate and drop back to 15 10 hours my body would just change it becomes more defined faster stonger etc it just leaps ahead as if it catches up with the training id been doing just thought id put it out there. With pullups I think reps till failure is the best way to see improvement just have good rest time. And slade sounds like a lil way to good to be tru im more prove it then say it. Also there is no mention on whether there is any counter balance equip for his pullup or someone holding his feet to help him up lol. Not saying his a liar but im skeptical.

33

I’m not lying, I honestly did 3 unassisted pullups last night. What, do you want video so i can prove that I did 3 pullups? :smiley:

34

i do pullups the same days i do back and shoulders. i did 10 last night just to warm up before lifting without too much effort so i think my max is currently around 15. give or take a little.

im also 5’4’’ and weigh 138lbs though hehe.

[edit] oh and the reason why i posted to begin with … do you guys think i could start doing pullups 3 times a week in addition to lifting 3 - 5 times. im sure it wouldnt hurt to do them on the day or two of lower body work, but i also want to make sure my upper half is getting propper healing time.

35

You should be ok with 3 days a week. I was doing pullups 4 days a week when I got up to 40 “perfect form”, legs in an “L” (actually closer to a lazy V!) pullups! I weighed 165# at the time.

I did Tues. Thurs, Sat, Sun. Each day was 10 sets to failure of two different pullup exercsies. I wouldn’t recommend the 4 days though. You will really need the extra day of rest!

36

cheif fox please include a running commentary of ur 3 pullups i would very much like to hear ur journey from pullup mino to pullup superhero. U inspire us all the keep reaching for the stars ahahahaha. (when i first read ur post i was like wat i didnt say nething bout ur pullup then i saw the smily face.)

37

my pull-up problem

Hey guys,
very interesting thread !!! I really love Pull-Ups, because it’s a very good excercise you can do without any equipment or studio…
I will definitly start a new training routine. Until now, I did pull-ups just once a week within my back-training. (always in the beginning, 3 sets) I can do about 12 clean pull-ups with overhand. But the problem is still, that after my first set of 12 reps, I am not able to do even 6 reps.
So I hope this problem will be solved by doing them more often per week !!
Greets
TaiChiStorm

38

Hi TaiChiStorm,

How long are you resting between your sets? You should rest a minimum of 1 minute, but not more that 4 or 5 minutes. There are many ways to improve. If numbers per set are important to you then rest longer, otherwise 1-2 minutes will be fine. It is good that you are doing your pull-ups first. Be sure you haven’t done biceps the day before too.

You could also try doing just 2 sets instead of 3. Do your first set of 12 then rest 2-4 minutes then do your second set for as many as you can. Then rest 15 seconds and do as many as you can, then rest 15 seconds and keep going like that until you get up to 12 again. Be sure you have your two days off in a row at least once a week. If this is too much for you then only do pull-ups two days a week with the second day lighter. That means about ½ to 3/4 the number of pull-ups on the hard day. Or you can do your pull-ups then rest 2 days, do pull-ups, rest 2 days etc. or rest 3 days. As I said there are many ways to do them. Learn to listen to your muscles, with experience you will know when you can go hard again or if you need an extra day of rest.

Everyone’s body reacts differently to exercise because of their genetics and basic conditioning. So 3 per week may be too much for you right now.

39

I’ve started a new pullup program

So I’ve started this new pullup program. It’s called Recon Ron’s.

It’s designed to train marines to reach the max on the physical fitness test.

Here it is:

Step 1: 1,1,1,1,1 Step 16: 9,7,6,5,5
Step 2: 2,2,1,1,1 Step 17: 10,7,6,6,5
Step 3: 3,2,2,1,1 Step 18: 10,8,6,6,6
Step 4: 3,2,2,2,1 Step 19: 10,8,7,6,6
Step 5: 4,2,2,2,2 Step 20: 11,8,7,7,6
Step 6: 4,3,2,2,2 Step 21: 12,9,7,7,7
Step 7: 4,4,2,2,2 Step 22: 13,9,8,7,7
Step 8: 5,4,3,2,2 Step 23: 14,9,8,8,7
Step 9: 5,4,3,3,3 Step 24: 14,10,8,8,8
Step 10: 6,4,4,3,3 Step 25: 15,10,9,8,8
Step 11: 6,5,4,4,3 Step 26: 16,10,9,9,8
Step 12: 7,5,4,4,4 Step 27: 16,11,9,9,9
Step 13: 7,6,5,4,4 Step 28: 17,11,10,9,9
Step 14: 8,6,5,5,4 Step 29: 18,11,10,10,9
Step 15: 8,7,5,5,5 Step 30: 18,12,10,10,10

Each step is done two weeks before advancing. You do 5 sets of pullups everyday starting at step 1 you do 5 sets of 1 pullup. You then move up through the steps.

I’m just finishing up step one this week and will be moving on to step 2 in a couple of days. I can already feel my grip getting stronger and I can pull higher. More to my chest than just my chin.

30 steps at two weeks a step is 60 weeks. That puts me completing this routine sometime next fall. I hope I can keep it going for that long.

40

should you start at a slightly higher step if your ready for it or no?